indraadnan's Photos

Indraadnan's Blog

The Downing Street Project is one year old. With the UK on the brink of an
election, our dream of lining up 100 new women to stand seems far away. Despite
plenty of excellent candidates, the eye of the needle is selection at party
level. There are more women short-listed, but very few that are chosen to run
for winnable seats – even where the local selectors are largely women. Why? At
the current rate of…Continue

Mahatma Gandhi (http://dmihrd.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/gandhi-and-some-sugar/) once received a visit from a woman concerned about her child who was eating too much sugar. Knowing how much the child revered the guru, she asked Gandhi to convince him to give up, afraid he would become diabetic. Gandhi listened to her, nodded his head and asked her to return in a week. On her next visit Gandhi told the young boy that sugar was not good for him and he should give it up. Asking why he could not have… Continue

Comment Wall (31 comments)

You need to be a member of The Downing Street Project / network to add comments!

Please don't worry about the autocorrect - no problem at all! I am originally from Ukraine, but even there my name is rather rare, so people often mispronounce and misspell it. I am used to all sorts of spelling of my name and don't even notice then now (one of many fascinating qualities of our brains :) )

I shall preface my reply with 'I am not really sure what the Big Society actually means' as I can't clearly see the thinking and strategy behind it or the process for it to unfold. Undoubtedly some change will occur but will it be the profound change society needs?At the moment I doubt it as it seems to me the Government is doing contradictory things eg the forthcoming economic policy doesn't seem to support achievement of BS as it seems it will throw more people back into poverty and struggle which in my experience causes people to go into fight/ flight mode rather than community et al.

My personal learnings, from life and the work I do with organisations and individuals, continually show me that what really matters in life is having the means to live a well life with relationships, community and the ability to thrive/ achieve/ be creative/ grow one's spirit.

If the BS can support achievement of that for everyone that I am all for it but I think we need changes in the financial system first. Whilst we still have the paradigm that money and wealth is prime and men (I am not anti-men it's just that their paradigm's tend to be different to most women's) have the power I feel it will be extremely difficult to achieve the BS.

Ah yes . Of course what I have presented so far is rather simplistic. We then get into Skillful means. Of course there must be ways, even rules for boundaries and successful communal living or societal living. The Buddha was very aware of this when it came to the Community of Monks and Nuns. You may remember that in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha uses Skillful means . The story of the father telling his sons about the wonderful chariots outside of the burning house that they should come out to see and play with. . He uses ideas in a compassionate way in order to help people. However ultimately once these ideas or means have been made use of they can be discarded. My understanding of this is that still all ideas or views are temporary and situational. There may not be a time limit on this, but the clinging or grasping is deeper in ones mind. I go back to ideas of 'ultimate' and 'the only way' that some find impossible to hold lightly. Its the holding lightly with all these things which the Buddha suggests can be developed. we seem to have jumped in to the real heart and subtle aspect of Buddhism here. :-)

Yes You are right, I have heard that before...but its very important point. Its not about having ideas its about the clinging to those ideas. Ideas of ultimate truth for example. THE only way. so not clinging to any ideas or any views is what the Buddha advocated. To see views just as views. Views that change, develop, degrade whatever.

Yes absolutely. This is the purpose of Buddhism. The mind experiences complete freedom, liberation and non-attachment. The 4th noble truth is Nirodha ( Nirvana) Liberation from craving and grasping. Particularly the holding on to the idea of a permanent, unchanging self. Or indeed holding on to any ideas of permanence. Its that simple !!! Ha ha!

Thank you for your warm welcome. You only have a tiny peek at my life story - there is much more to tell. I have other profiles in different places, including LinkedIn, from which I could add more if necessary. It's very hard to put a whole life into a nutshell!

I am fascinated by your Mock Cabinet Project - I wonder what commitment is expected? I'm living in Scotland at the moment but expecting to move back down South within a few months (hopefully) to be near to my family. I will be in or around London on 10th July, however, as I'm singing in the Royal Albert Hall on 11th!